Here's the most surprising thing about Max Brooks' "World War Z" - it makes the reader wonder why anyone should wait for the zombie apocalypse to finally get our sh*t together.

In WWZ, Brooks uses the notion of a common enemy - the zombie - to examine the psychological and logistical constructs underpinning everything from human trafficking to the market for black market organs and have incredibly frank conversations about issues like Israel-Palestine relations.

"I wanted to explore the notion of how interconnected our planet truly is. I think that if America suffers from one great cultural flaw it is chronic isolationism," Brooks said. "More than once we've gotten seriously burned because of this weakness, and we're going to continue to get burned if we don't pull our heads out and look around planet Earth."

Brooks is headlining the Salem Public Library's "More Brains! A Zombie Survival Drill" film festival Feb. 27 in the Loucks Auditorium. A zombie movie marathon including recent hits like "Zombieland" precedes Brooks' talk titled "10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack."

In addition to WWZ, Brooks penned the "The Zombie Survival Guide," a handbook of the essential tools and skills necessary to repel the zombie hordes, and the graphic novel "Recorded Attacks," which chronicles the archaeological record of zombies throughout history. Brooks' books continue to be brisk loaners for the Salem Public Library, said spokesperson Sonja Somerville.

He wrote the original survival guide as a response to the glut of survival handbooks released during the run-up to the changing of the millennium and Y2K scares, but WWZ is treated as a oral history in the same vein as Studs Terkel's "The Good War" and "The Third World War" by General John Hackett.

Brooks said the preparation for writing the book was overwhelming.

"Ironically, I couldn't have written a book of fake interviews if I hadn't done so many real ones. I've never done so much homework in my life," he said. "WWZ also forced me to get beyond the books and talk to real people with real jobs."

As far inspiration from zombie flicks go, Brooks is a big fan of the original "Dawn of the Dead" and holds a special place in his heart for the more recent "Shaun of the Dead."

"[Dawn of the Dead] is one of the most important social commentaries of the Baby Boom generation," Brooks said. "[Shaun of the Dead] is not only a first rate comedy, it's first rate movie - intelligent characters, a tight plot, and very real, very intense human drama."

While George Romero's opus missed inclusion in the film festival, "Shaun of the Dead" is in the library line-up.

Brooks is uncertain whether he'll continue to mine the zombie genre for story material, but said he's just as uncertain about what the next genre break-out will be.

"I had a "Viking Survival Guide" ready to go, but it got protested by all those Norwegian-American groups," Brooks said. "You know how they can be."

Editor's note: For the times and titles of all the movies included in the film festival, check the Briefly section on page XX.